Study the materials in the unit “History of
Computers”.
Make a voice/video recording in LANGblog
describing a computing device.
Guess which device classmates have
described in their main LANGblog post.
Write a letter to a computer magazine.
Comment on other students’ letters in the
Forum.
Reading Comprehension Exercise

Please note these dates are recommended deadlines but if it is more
convenient for you, you can always send work to the classroom before
these dates.

OBJECTIVES
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Read about somebody’s first computer
Listen to talks about two early computer pioneers
Study and practise present and past participles
Study words related to computers
Prepare and give a short oral description of a computer/technological device
for classmates to identify
Write a letter to a computer magazine about your experiences with
computers now (positive and negative) and your predictions for how you
think computers will change in the future
Hold a class discussion in the Forum to decide on which prediction is most
likely to happen

Part I: December 10th – December 13th
CA5 corresponds to “History of Computers”, which is obviously about the history of
computers! There is a set of exercises related to this unit, which you will find under
Recursos in the classroom. These exercises are self-correcting (the answers are

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provided for you) and you can do them at your own pace. We recommend that you
start your work for this CA unit doing these exercises so that you can learn the
vocabulary needed, revise grammar and read about the topic.

Part II: December 13th – December 16th
For Part II of this CA Activity you need to record a voice/video message in
LANGblog. Think of any computing device and describe it both physically and in
terms of how it works/worked and what it does/did. Here are some suggestions:
eBook readers, playstations, xboxes, iphones, ipods, ipads, digital cameras,
home computers, calculators (remember those?), arcade games, etc.
DON’T say which device you are describing. You and your classmates must guess
what is being described in Part III.
Please note the following:
Your recording should be no longer than one minute. You should prepare what you are going
to say in advance and you may use notes to remind you of the main points of your talk and
develop them as you speak. You should try to sound as natural as possible and, therefore,
you are advised not to read word for word from a prepared written piece. We also
recommend listening to your recordings and recording more than 1 version until you are
happy with the quality of your work.

Part III: December 16th – December 19th
A.
For Part III of this CA activity you must listen to your classmates’
contributions in LANGblog and guess at least two of them. You may, of course,
guess as many as you like.
B.
For Part III of this CA Activity you also have to write a letter to a
magazine. You need to write a 150-200 word contribution to the forum about the
following topic:
Imagine a computer magazine has asked readers to write in and describe their
experiences with computers, saying what they find frustrating, annoying, exciting,
thrilling, boring, worrying or interesting about computers at the moment, and how
they predict that computers might change in the future? What will computers
enable us to do in the near future and beyond? Try not to limit yourself to
everyday life – think of some of the more obscure computer developments that
may happen.
In your letter, you should explain your predictions and give reasons for them too.
Send your contribution to the folder “CA5_History_of_Computers”.

Part IV: December 19th – December 23rd

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Read your classmatesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; letters and comment on at least two of them. You may, of
course, comment on as many as you like. Which prediction do you think is the most
likely/unlikely to happen? Why?

Part V: December 10th â&#x20AC;&#x201C; December 23rd
You have already done 2 Reading Comprehension Exercises this semester. For this
third and final one you will again get a mark based on the result of the
exercise. You will be able to access RCE3 from Friday 10th December and you must
complete the activity by the final deadline for CA5 which is Tuesday 23rd
December.